Media sensors are known which reliably determine the difference between coated, plan, photo and transparency media types. These sensors contact the media with significant force and have been located in the media tray from which media is fed into a media feed path to reach an imaging station.
However, the media sensor pressing onto the surface of paper or other media creates a small amount of drag which can affect paper pick and feed adversely on some types of media, such as small media. Marks on the surface of photo paper made by drag on the media sensor may also occur.
Where the media sensor is located in the media path between the tray and the imaging station the problem of skew of small media becomes very significant. Accordingly, eliminating drag from contact with the media sensor is very desirable.